Building construction



Sept- 5, l939- c. B. RoBBxNrs 2,l72,052

BUILDING CDNSTRUCTION Filed Nov. 1938 Patented Sept. 5, 1939 UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFECE 2,172,052 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION ApplicationNovember 8, 1938, Serial No. 239,515

1 Claim.

This invention relates to improvements in building constructions.

Concrete building blocks of the kind now commonly used in thefabrication of wall structures 5 are designed primarily to provideleft-in-place forms adapted to hold vertical columns of thermalinsulating material. Wall structures made with concrete building blocksof this particular type have several disadvantages, the mostobjectionable of which is that their design or construction does notprovide for adequate internal reenforcing. It is well known that a massof concrete cast as a unitary structure is considerably stronger than anequal mass made up of a number of pre-cast units, and since it is notpossible with the concrete building blocks now commonly used, toconstruct a wall having a unitary and integrally formed concretestructure throughout, the load bearing properties of such a wall are notadequate to meet certain building requirements. Until the presentinvention the vertical and horizontal joints or spaces occurring inwalls fabricated with concrete blocks of the usual kind, required handmortaring.

Overcoming these disadvantages I have provided an improved buildingblock oi novel shape and construction having internal spaces forvholding thermal insulating material as Well as concrete and Steel rodreenforcements.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improvedrectangular-shaped building block having an open top and an open bottom,and provided internally with cells or Spaces for holding a section ofconcrete material and a section of thermal insulating material.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improved building blockhaving a construction, which in association with other similar blocksforming a wall structure, provides reenforcing means adapted to bothreenforce the wall and at the same time seal the horizontal and verticaljoints ordinarily located between the blocks.

Other and further objects of my invention will be pointed outhereinafter, indicated in the appended claim, or will be obvious tooneskilled in the art upon an understanding of the present disclosure. Forthe purpose of this application I have elected to show herein certainforms and details of building blocks representative of my invention; itis to be understood, however, that the embodiments of my inventionherein shown and described are for the purposes of illustration only,and that therefore they are not to be regarded as exhaustive of thevariations of the invention, norare they to be given interpretationssuch as might have the eiect vof limiting the claims, short of the trueand most comprehensive scope of the invention in the art.

, In the accompanying drawing:`

Fig. 1 is a perspective View of a building block embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective View of a partly fabricated. wall made from anumber of blocks of the kind illustrated in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a sideelevation of a wall constructed in accordance with myinvention, showing a portion broken-away and incross section;

Fig. 4 is a perspective View of a building block embodying a modifiedconstruction; and

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section of a portion of the completed wall takenon the line 5-5 of Fig. 3.

Referring particularly to Figs. 17 2, 3 and 5 of thedrawing, the numerall designates an open concrete building block of substantiallyrectangular shape having its two longest sides 2 and 3 separated onefrom another by a longitudinally disposed parallel partition 4. Thepartition divides the block into two cells or spaces 5 and 6 Which areapproximately of the same width, but not necessarily so. The oppositeends of the cell 5 are enclosed by end members I and 8, while theopposite ends of the cell 6 are enclosed by end members 9 and Il), thelatter being positioned inwardly from the end members l', therebyproviding end spaces Il and l2 which are partly enclosed by theprojecting ends of the side 3 and the partition 4 and by the end membersl! and I The end members 1, 8, 9 and i!! are preferably disposed inparallel relation to one another. The combined lengths of the end spacesI I and I2 and the cell 6 are substantially the same as that of the cell5. When two of the blocks are positioned end to end there is providedbehind the two contiguous ends 1 and 8 an enclosed space (made up of theend space ll of one of the blocks and the end space l2 of the other)which is adapted tocontain a body of concrete that seals the verticaljoint between the two blocks.

As shown in Fig 4, the block may be provided adjacent the opposite endsof the rear cell 6 with end spacers Il and I2 which have their innerwalls semi-circular shape. In this modiiied construction the end members9 and lil enclosing the ends of the cell 6 are of suitable thickness toprovide for the formation of circular grooves which constitute the endspaces ll and l2'. In other respects the block illustrated in Fig. 4 issubstantially the same as the block shown in Fig. 1;

In fabricating a wall in accordance with my invention the blocks arearranged in overlapping formation one above another with the extremeends of one block positioned midway between the ends of a block locateddirectly beneath it, as illustrated in Figs, 2 and 3. Reenforcing steelrods I 3 are thereupon positioned in the aligned cells 6 of the blocksin such a manner that certain of them are disposed in vertical positionsand others are inclined or slanted, as shown in Fig. 3. The dimensionsof the cells 6 of the blocks being such that their widths areconsiderably less than their lengths, enables certain of the steel rodsI3 to assume diagonal or slanting positions, thereby providing areenforcing structure which possesses improved load-carrying properties.After the reenforcing rods are placed as aforesaid, the interconnectedspaces or cells I I, I2, and 6, throughout the height, length andbreadth of the wall are filled with concrete or other suitable material.When the concrete has hardened in the usual manner, a unitary andintegrally connected concrete structure I4, reenforced by vertical andslanting steel rods I3, is provided throughout the length and breadth ofthe wall. The interconnected spaces or cells 5 of the blocks are nextlled with a suitable thermal insulating material I5.

Since the concrete structure I4 is interconnected in every directionthroughout the length, breadth and height of the wall, therebyadequately reenforcing the latter, the sides, ends and partition of theblocks may be of considerably less thickness than is the case withconcrete building blocks of the kind now commonly used.

After the wall has been completed, the vertical, as well as thehorizontal, joints between the blocks are eiectively sealed by the bodyof concrete material I4 which fills the spaces II and I2 and the cells6.

Having described my invention, what I claim is:

In a masonry wall structure, a plurality of substantially rectangularbuilding blocks, each open at its top and bottom and each being dividedinteriorly into two longitudinally disposed cells by a longitudinalpartition disposed in parallel relation to the long sides of the block,the said blocks being arranged in horizontal rows with one rowsuperimposed upon another row and the blocks of adjacent rows arrangedin overlapping 4 positions so that the opposite ends oi one block arecentrally positioned with respect to the two adjacent blocks supportingit, the said blocks of each row being arranged with a portion of theirends contiguous to one another, and each of the blocks having theircontiguous ends of such an inwardly disposed irregular shape that theends of one cell are positioned inwardly from the ends of the other cellwhereby cells of different lengths are provided and whereby end spacesare provided adjacent the opposite ends of the shorter of the two cells,the said end spaces of adjacent blocks being so disposed that whenfilled with a body ofmaterial the vertical joints of the contiguousblocks are sealed, the said blocks when so arranged in horizontalsuperimposed rows providing two vertical material-holding forms eachcomprising a series of interconnected cells, a body of concrete materiallocated in one of the forms, and a body of insulating material locatedin the other form.

CARL B. ROBBINS.

